CHITRAL, March 23: A lynx, wild cat, has created panic in the vicinity of Drosh town here keeping the villagers on alert after it attacked children and domestic animals.

The villagers said that a teenaged girl Mehnaz Ameen was injured by the wild cat when she came to rescue her domestic chicken. They said that the wild cat bit her arm and ran away only when her family members rushed to the spot with sticks.

Known locally as ‘Dowchone’, the wild cat inhabits forests at high altitude and seldom descends to low altitude areas, they said.

A villager, Sardar Abdur Rehman, said that it was a medium sized cat-shaped animal with short tail, large paws and long whiskers on the face. He said that the wild cat attacks in broad day light in search of food and has so far bitten a number of children apart from cows and other cattle.

The villager said that the infected children were inoculated in the local hospital. He said that the villagers hesitated to shoot the animal fearing violation of wild life laws under which its hunting is strictly prohibited as it has been declared an endangered species in the Himalayas and the Hindukush regions.